ASK TONY: HMRC owes me £800 - so why has it only sent a cheque for £1?

I have been trying to get a tax rebate from HMRC for the past year and feel I am being either fobbed off or totally ignored. I am 68 and receive a state pension of £75.41 a week and a small private pension of £350.72 per annum.

On April 24 last year, an equity bond I had with Legal & General matured. The statement showed £800.18 had been deducted in tax, which I was advised to reclaim. I wrote to HMRC on May 5 last year, enclosing a copy of the statement.

On August 24, I received a reply with a cheque for £1 - which I have framed! I wrote again on September 16 but I have heard nothing.

S. E., North Devon.

Tax rebate: This reader tried to claim back £800 and received a cheque for £1

You enclosed all the information for me to see at a glance that you are indeed entitled to this rebate.

Your total income for the 2015/16 tax year was calculated by HMRC as being £9,015, well below your tax-exempt personal allowance of £10,600. Yet HMRC did a bizarre calculation that produced a rebate of just £1.

You wrote again and your letter was roundly ignored. HMRC appears to prefer its customers spend their lives hanging on the phone rather than send them a succinct and clear letter.

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Just last week a damning report revealed the lows to which customer service at HMRC has fallen. The number of ‘outstanding discrepancies’ in HMRC’s files almost doubled in 12 months, from 2.4 million in March 2014 to 4.6million last year - 3.2million of which were classed as high priority, meaning people have likely paid the wrong amount of tax.

HMRC has now sorted out your problem. A spokesman says: ‘We processed the refund in October 2015. Unfortunately the cheque was not issued as part of that process.’

HMRC has now sent you a payment of £800.18 along with flowers by way of apology for the inconvenience and distress it caused.

Now that’s a touch I’d like to see more often from the tax office.

On March 3, I used myHermes to courier a power tool I had sold for £650. On March 8, the buyer told me the item hadn’t arrived, and according to the tracking it was still at my local depot.

MyHermes said there was a ‘technical issue’ and that delivery would take place in one to two days. On March 10, the parcel was deemed lost and I was told to submit a claim form.

I received £25 compensation and a £10.78 postage refund, which I was told is all I’m entitled to. I have had to reimburse the customer the full £650.

S. S., Scarborough.

This is one of those situations where I can do little more than express sympathy and suggest readers take a close look at terms and conditions when using postal and courier services.

Yes, myHermes made a mistake and lost your parcel. But the conditions state you can opt for higher levels of compensation.

You could have paid £4.80 to increase your compensation level to £250. You chose to stick with the basic £25.

MyHermes says: ‘We’d like to apologise. Last year we handled more than 245million parcels with a vast majority delivered without any problems. We believe the majority of customers receive a good service, but in a small proportion of cases things can go wrong. We’re constantly trying to improve this.’

It is standard practice for customers to be expected to purchase insurance when posting valuable items.

Digital delay: One BT customer was told she had been emailed her bill, even though she had no computer

I have had a frustrating time since asking BT to provide a landline to my new home.

I was promised the conditions would be sent to me by post, but nothing arrived. A bill was sent to a similar address, but addressed to a Mrs P not Mrs B. And I was told documents had been emailed to me.

I don’t have a computer, so said this was impossible - to which the BT operator replied that the previous person who had occupied the property had accepted emails.

I have since discovered that £20.99 per month going out of my account is my bill, which is being sent to the wrong address.

B. B., Chesterfield.

BT is one of the biggest telecoms companies in the UK and operates in 170 countries. But it sounds as if it’s still getting to grips with Chesterfield.

Its remark that it could email bills to you because the previous resident at your address had accepted emails nearly made me fall off my chair laughing.

You have now had an apology and BT has changed its records. It is sorry for not sending confirmation by post.

As a gesture of goodwill it has refunded the £50 line connection charge. While speaking to you the operator noticed a crackle on the line, so an engineer is visiting to look at this, too.

STRAIGHT TO THE POINT

My brothers and I have each received a £70,000 inheritance. Inheritance tax has already been paid. Does this cash count as income and mean that I’ll have to pay income tax on it as well?

P. B., London.

No. Once inheritance tax is paid, that’s it. Down the line you may need to pay tax on any profits and income you make if you invest the money, for example from shares or property.

Can I manage an account with a fund supermarket by post or telephone?

D. W., Lincoln.

Yes, you can, but be wary as some will charge additional fees for not managing your account online, and you may also have to pay to receive paper statements.

My wife and I tried to open a savings account online but our application didn’t go through. We visited a branch two days later where we were each given a card and PIN. But then two months later another set arrived in the post. Nationwide won’t tell us what is going on. Can you help?

J. W., Edinburgh.

This mistake all boils down to Nationwide trying to do the right thing and ensure you didn’t miss out on the two days of interest you lost when your online application failed due to a system error.

The only way to do this was to close the original account and open a new one, which generates new cards and PINs. Unfortunately this wasn’t explained to you. Nationwide apologises for this and has offered you £175 in compensation.

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ASK TONY: HMRC owes me £800 - so why has it only sent a cheque for £1?